The thesis is the first attempt to provide a theoretical understanding and generalization of the theoretical foundations and organizational and methodological features of the formation of the global competence of students at the U. S. higher education institutions.
It has been found that the formation of global competence is one of the main concepts in the educational philosophy of the United States, which was first mentioned in the 1950s in the context of civic education as international awareness, and later evolved into global awareness. It has been clarified that there is still no universally accepted definition of the term “global competence” in the scholarly and pedagogical literature. Depending on the academic discipline and pedagogical approach, the terminological basis of the pedagogical phenomenon under study includes, but is not limited to, such concepts as “global citizenship”, “cosmopolitan citizenship”, “transnational citizenship”, etc.
It has been found that the pedagogical phenomenon of global competence is distinguished by the following three main approaches to its interpretation, such as: an approach based on intercultural competence; an approach based on global consciousness; and an approach based on global socially significant activity. In accordance with the defined approaches, the concept of global competence is generalized as a certain complex of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that an individual needs to understand general international issues and urgent problems of the modern world, to have the opportunity to learn and work with people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, to be fluent in a foreign language and to be an active participant in an interdependent global community through civic engagement.
On the basis of the analysis of normative documents in the field of forming global competence of students in the U. S. higher education, the understanding and generalization of the scholarly and pedagogical findings of American teachers, four organizational and pedagogical conditions for the formation of the global competence of the U. S. university and college students have been distinguished and characterized (actualization of the role of general undergraduate education in the formation of students’ global competence; interdisciplinary integration of knowledge in the formation of students’ global competence; internationalization of higher education; training of university and college teachers taking into account the context of global education). Forms (curricular and extra-curricular) and methods (interactive) aimed at forming the global competence of students at the U. S. higher education institutions are summarized.
A comparative analysis of the state of problem development of forming the global competence of students of higher education institutions in the USA and Ukraine has been carried out. The perspective ways of borrowing progressive ideas of the U. S. experience into the educational environment of Ukraine are outlined, and recommendations for their creative application are elaborated.
The practical significance of the obtained results is as follows: materials of the study (factual data, forms and methods that provide shaping students’ citizenship), theoretical principles, conclusions substantiated in the dissertation, can be utilized by domestic scholars to research into the problems actualized in the study. The obtained results can be applied in order to improve the process of formation of global competence of Ukrainian students; modernization of global education during general undergraduate education at the Ukrainian higher education institutions, to increase the quality and competitiveness of higher education institutions in the world market of educational services, aw well as to educate conscious and responsible citizens of Ukrainian society and the world as a whole. The informational resource of the dissertation should be used in research on general pedagogy, history of pedagogy, comparative pedagogy, sociology of education; in the teaching of educational components of higher education instituions’ pedagogy, civic education, sustainable development, intercultural communication, educational management, legislative provision of higher education for bachelor’s and master’s degree students. The prognostic potential of the research enables the development of concepts for the integration of Ukrainian higher education into the global educational environment based on the proposed recommendations for the implementation of constructive ideas of the American pedagogical experience at the state, institutional and individual levels.
